Setting
Last updated on
Jun 2, 2026
Find all Interface preference settings that control the appearance, panel behavior, and workspace display options in Adobe InDesign.
Consult these settings when customizing the visual appearance, adjusting how panels respond to your workflow, or troubleshooting unexpected interface behavior. Access these preferences at Edit > Preferences > Interface (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Interface (macOS).
Appearance and display settings
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Description |
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Color Theme |
Select the color theme for InDesign interface. Choose from Dark, Medium Dark, Medium Light, or Light Color Theme. |
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Match Pasteboard To Theme Color |
Matches the pasteboard color to the selected interface theme color. When deselected, pasteboard uses default white. |
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Tool Tips |
Controls whether tool tips appear when you hold the pointer over interface items such as tools in the toolbar and options in the Control panel. Choose None to turn off tool tips. |
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Show Thumbnails on Place |
Displays a thumbnail preview in the loaded graphics cursor when placing images, or shows the first few lines of text when placing text files. Deselect to show standard cursor icons instead. |
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Show Transformation Values |
Displays [x,y] coordinates, width and height, or rotation information at the cursor when creating, sizing, or rotating objects. |
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Highlight Object Under Selection Tool |
Highlights the frame edges of objects when the direct selection tool is moved over them, making objects easier to identify before selection. |
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Large Tabs |
Increases the height of panel and document tabs for easier selection and readability. |
Panel behavior settings
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Setting |
Description |
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Floating Tools Panel |
Controls the toolbar layout. Choose single column, double column, or single row. |
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Auto-Collapse Icon Panels |
Automatically closes open panels when you click the document window, reducing screen clutter. |
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Auto-Show Hidden Panels |
Temporarily reveals hidden panels (hidden with Tab) when you hold the pointer over the side of the document window. When deselected, you must press Tab again to display panels. |
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Open Documents As Tabs |
Controls whether new or opened documents appear as tabbed windows (selected) or floating windows (deselected). |
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Enable Floating Document Window Docking |
Allows floating document windows to dock with each other as tabbed windows. When deselected, floating documents don't dock unless you hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (macOS) while dragging. |
Input device settings
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Setting |
Description |
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Enable Multi-Touch Gestures |
Allows Windows and macOS multi-touch mouse gestures to work in InDesign. For example, with Magic Mouse in macOS, swipe gestures scroll or move between pages, and rotate gestures rotate the spread. |
Performance settings
These settings control how InDesign renders content during interaction, balancing display quality against responsiveness.
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Setting |
Description |
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Hand Tool |
Controls whether to greek text and images when you scroll a document. Drag the Hand Tool slider toward the left (performance) for faster scrolling with temporarily simplified display, or toward the right (quality) for full-quality display during scrolling. |
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Live Screen Drawing |
Determines whether images redraw as you drag objects. Choose Immediate to redraw the image continuously while dragging, Never to display only the frame during dragging (image moves when you release the mouse button), or Delayed to redraw only if you pause before dragging. |
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Greek Vector Graphics On Drag |
Displays complex vector objects as gray boxes while dragging them, increasing movement speed. The objects display fully when you release the mouse button. |
Integrate Adobe Asset link
Access content in AEM Assets directly from InDesign using Adobe Asset Link, which is installed as an extension in the application. Your IT admin must configure and deploy the panel. After installation and configuration, you can open the panel from Window > Extensions > Adobe Asset Link.
For easier access, you can configure your workspace to include and manage the Adobe Asset Link panel.
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